Literary Devices – Bemidbar 32/0

Literary Devices – Bemidbar 32

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Key Words

אֶרֶץ

• See the Tanakh Lab that this word appears a full 18 times in the chapter, highlighting a central question of the unit. Was the tribes' request to settle the land east of the Jordan a rejection of the land promised by Hashem?

פנים

• Tanakh Lab demonstrates that the word “פָּנִים” (always in the various forms of "לִפְנֵי" or "מִפְּנֵי") is the second most frequently-used word in this chapter, appearing 12 times.  The members of Gad and Reuven initially declare that they will enter battle “לִפְנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל” (verse 17), focusing on the national significance of the conquest. Moshe changes this phraseology, instructing them four times that they will go to war “לִפְנֵי י״י” (verses 20-22), hinting to the religious import of the event. They apparently learn the lesson, for they then adopt his language in verse 27, stating that they will go to battle “לִפְנֵי י״י”.
• Articles – See N. Leibowitz, Iyyunim BeSefer Bemidbar (Jerusalem, 1996):356-359 who notes this point and discusses other points of comparison between the tribes' wording of their request and Moshe's reply.

מקנה The word מקנה appears six times in the chapter, four of which are in the tribes' opening speech. Its placement as the opening word of the unit further points to its import. The term refers to cattle, but the choice to use this word with its connotation of possession, raises the question of whether it was pursuit of the material which lay at the heart of the tribes' request.

Repetition: Double VaYomer

The Speech of Reuven and Gad

In many verses, one finds that the word "וַיֹּאמֶר" is mentioned twice despite there not being an an intervening response or explicit change in speaker in between. This might indicate resistance or opposition of some sort on the part of the other participants in the conversation.  In verse 2 and again in verse 5, the speech of the members of Gad and Reuven is introduced by “וַיֹּאמְרוּ” although no one else has spoken in the interim. This might imply Moshe’s resistance to their proposal.¹  

Articles

For discussion of the general phenomenon of the "doubled Vayomer" with many examples, see: Redundancy. For a comprehensive discussion, see מאיר שילוח, "ויאמר... ויאמר", ספר קורנגרין (תשכ"ד): 251-267.

¹ See Abarbanel who explains that Reuven and Gad hesitantly hinted to their request to live on the eastern flank of the Jordan, hoping Moshe would understand without them needing to elaborate, but when he was silent, they were forced to say what they wanted explicitly. He notes that this is common human behavior: "It frequently happens that a humble man is embarrassed to request something from his lord explicitly, so he makes the request through hints. And if the lord does not understand his hints or will not respond to them, then the petitioner is forced to speak a second time, making the same request explicitly".